Recycle Your Holiday Lights to Help Save Animals in the Wild

November 23, 2020 by Erin Valley Donato, Sustainability Manager

This holiday season recycle your holiday string lights at the Houston Zoo to help save animals in the wild! Recycling helps keep unwanted items out of landfills. The fewer landfills we need for human waste, the more space there is for animals! To help protect wildlife, the Houston Zoo has placed a holiday lights recycling bin at the main entrance gate of the zoo. Only string lights will be accepted for recycle; please do not bring items such as flood lights, or light hooks, or other Christmas decorations.

The collection bin is located just inside of the Main Entrance and is open until the last day of Zoo Lights on January 10, 2021.

The Turnquist family has been Zoo members for the past four years and dropped off lights before their Zoo Lights Overnight experience.

It’s that wonderful time of year where we get to decorate for the holidays! As you get all your lights out of your attic or from the depths of your closet, you may find that some of your string lights are burnt out or broken. Maybe you are ready to upgrade your lights to LED and just want to get rid of your old ones. Whatever the reason, help us keep holiday lights out of landfills and bring your unwanted lights to the Houston Zoo for recycle. The Houston Zoo has helped divert 20,019 pounds of holiday string lights from landfills since the program was started in 2016. That’s heavier than 60 adult black bears! Less material sent to landfill helps decrease the demand for new landfills, meaning more space for animals like the beautiful black bear!

You can bring your unwanted holiday string lights to the main entrance of the Houston Zoo until the last day of Zoo Lights on January 10, 2021. Simply place them in the bin and we will make sure they are responsibly recycled, so you can enjoy your holidays knowing that you helped save animals in the wild!